Favouritism

Education Minister in the Coalition Government justifiably conceived the plan of creating model cluster schools in feasible areas. The purpose is of monitoring the infrastructure and other requirements of lower schools in the area if education is streamlined. Government Middle and Primary Schools near that Higher Secondary School in the same locality or area would be monitored by the Higher Secondary School in the same area. One of the aims in floating this scheme was to attract students to the Government schools and not opt for admission in private schools, which generally did not meet the conditions for running such schools. Director of Education identified Ranbir Higher Secondary School and Sunjwan Higher Secondary School in Jammu city for experimentation as clusters at the initial stage. To the great surprise of the visiting team, it was found that the lower schools were physically non-existent though the staff continues to draw their salary. Some of the lower schools are merged with Middle Schools in the area with hardly any students on the rolls. This was done to adjust favoured teachers in these schools and let them stay on in the city. As many as 12 teachers were found adjusted in the city under this dubious merger. Obviously, these teachers could manage their retention in the city institutions owing to their political influence. This is no way of helping rural population to enjoy the right to education when teachers refuse to go to villages and the educational authorities lend them their support. Essentially, the problem is that there is widespread political interference in Education Department and this has given rise to favouritism. Government will have to curb it and punish those who manage to subvert the administrative system. Education Department should have a clear policy of posting teachers to rural areas for a specific period and then replacing them when their tenure concludes.

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